I've been nowhere near the "trade Bell" argument, but if the Steelers want to swap 20 million dollar cap hits, well, that'd do it for me.

Gruden's problem has always been respecting his defensive talent. When he was in Tampa, consistently got rid of the parts that made that defense what it was, while he added an extra bench QB sometimes during the season. Mack is probably the best edge rusher in the game (or at least the AFC) if he gets out of Oakland and the Raiders do not get to the AFCCG, Chuckie might not make the trip to Vegas.

_________________No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does, in the end, is what he intended to do all along- Cus D'Amato

I may stand a little corrected. There's some media speculation that cash poor Raiders ownership may be the motivation here, not the Chuckster.

The Raiders were 43 million under the cap last year and they put Carr under contract. This year knowing that Mack was in the last year of his rookie deal proceeded to sign Jordy Nelson and Bryant nearly 10 million in salary to the offense that currently has 7 offensive players (including the newly acquired Nelson) as its Top 10 biggest contracts. Nelson is a great player, but he is at best a 2-year rental at slot WR. They could have gotten a guy in the draft to fill that role cheaper and parlayed that money into Mack. They are already paying a TE 6 million to work the middle of the field. They should have made the deal last year or forwent adding more offensive weapons to keep their best player on defense. They did convince an oft-injured OL to take a cut, so they might be trying to stack that together to get a deal done later- but this could have been avoided with a better approach.

I'm totally discounting the first preseason game stuff, but his offense is going to look pretty awesome that's his skill set. They just gave their young QB a huge contract and a ton of weapons. However, the economics of that move is going to make that defense very Colt like- but without the pass rush.

_________________No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does, in the end, is what he intended to do all along- Cus D'Amato

It's an utter nightmare for a Raiders team having a cataclysmically bad offseason/summer under old-is-new coach Jon Gruden. Gruden surrendered the No. 79 overall pick for Bryant during April's draft. As for Bryant, this is essentially a career-ender. Players almost never come back from one indefinite suspension. This will be Bryant's second. Going on 28, he seems unlikely to be readmitted to the league. It's a sad development for football fans everywhere, as Bryant had the potential to be one of the top playmakers in the league. The Raiders have a dumpster fire depth chart on both sides of the ball.

It's an utter nightmare for a Raiders team having a cataclysmically bad offseason/summer under old-is-new coach Jon Gruden. Gruden surrendered the No. 79 overall pick for Bryant during April's draft. As for Bryant, this is essentially a career-ender. Players almost never come back from one indefinite suspension. This will be Bryant's second. Going on 28, he seems unlikely to be readmitted to the league. It's a sad development for football fans everywhere, as Bryant had the potential to be one of the top playmakers in the league. The Raiders have a dumpster fire depth chart on both sides of the ball.

_________________Howard Griffith had to resort to chop-blocking him during the 1997 AFC Championship Game. An incredulous Kirkland asked “Why do you have to use cheap tactics like chop-blocking?” Griffith replied by asking, “Why do you have to be a 300-pound linebacker?”